Booking Through Thursday Belatedly & More Bargain Books

Q: Do you keep all your unread books together, like books in a waiting room? Or are they scattered throughout your shelves, mingling like party-goers waiting for the host to come along?

A: I had to downsize my accommodation before travelling, so I actually put all my ‘read’ books into storage. So I only have TBR’s in my room now, except for those which I’ve read recently which I kind of put to one side. My read and unread books are definitely not partying, they are in fact, estranged!

On another note, I did a bit more book buying today. I felt compelled to pop into my local charity shop today – not for myself you understand, but for my boyfriend. His birthday is coming up and being a frugal pair, we like to collect all sorts of bits of inexpensive random stuff to give each other. So after perusing the bookshelves, I discovered the following:

The Guide to Family Photography, by Reg Mason – My boyfriend loves photography and so I thought I would pick this little gem up for him. It’s probably pretty useless from a theory point of view as it was printed in the late seventies, but I couldn’t resist it’s fabulous combination of step by step cartoons, interspersed strangely with images of Prince Charles. I thought that this one was Mills & Boon-worthy actually!

Then because my man is always moaning about how he’s getting old now, I snapped up Happy Birthday (you poor old wreck). A compilation of messages to ‘old people over 21’ by young children, including such wisdom as;

“Cats have birthdays like us. No one nose what cats thik about birthdays probly nothink.” Denis Hutchinson, 8

“When you die you don’t have birthdays” David Pollick, 7

OK, so it’s not that hilarious but it was birthday-related and only a quid. I also saw a copy of the original Jane Fonda workout book, which I was sorely tempted by but resisted. Although there were actually two copies so if I change my mind…